Hair brush

ABSTRACT

Hair brush having a solid rigid base member with a plurality of spaced recesses formed therein, each recess having a plurality of tufts of fine bristles being bent back upon themselves and a single thick strand of a length greater than the length of tuft of fine bristles.

United States Patent I Lardenois [451 June 13, 1972 [54] HAIR BRUSH3,103,679 9/1963 Clemens 15/167 R 3,263,258 8/1966 Burge ....l$/167 R[72] gf fg Lardemis 3,295,156 1/1967 Brant ..15/167 R [22] Filed: May 8,1970 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS [211 App]. No: 35,867 120,34111/1918 Great Britain ..l5/186 Primary Examiner-Peter Feldman [52] [1.8.CI. ..l5/ 159 A, 15/ 195, 300/21 Attorney-Kemon, Palmer & Estabrook [51]Int. Cl. ..A46b 3/16 [58] Field ofSearch ..l5/159,160,l86,187,167, [57]ABSTRACT 15,190200 6; 132/85 [20; 300/21 Hair brush having a solid rigidbase member with a plurality of spaced recesses formed therein, eachrecess having a plurality [56] References d of tufts of fine bristlesbeing bent back upon themselves and a UNITED STATES PATENTS single thickstrand of a length greater than the length of tuft of fine bristles.205,349 6/1878 Butron 132/120 1,957,363 5/1934 Snell ..l5/186 X 3Claims, 6 Drawing figures PATENTEDJUH 13 I972 sum 1 or 2 Fig.

Fig. 2

INVENTOR. Robert A. Lardenol's ATTORNEYS PATENTEnJuum m2 3.668.732

' SHEET 2 OF 2 INVENTOR. Robert .4. Laroenojs ATTORNEYS HAIR BRUSHBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to brushes ofthe type commonly used in brushing and combing a person's hair. A hairbrush during its use or operationshould be able to perform threefunctions, namely, comb the hair, then clean the hair while at the sametime distributing its natural or artificial secretions to give it lusterand finally to dress the hair. A combing brush is generally one havingmetal or plastic pins mounted in rubber or molded in plastic with thepins being of a monostrand or filament type which are sufficientlystrong and stiff so as to act like the teeth of a comb. A brush forcleaning a giving the hair its luster should be one having relativelythick tufts of fine bristles so that one may brush the hair for a longtime without breaking or damaging the hair. A dress or setting brush ispreferably one having a relatively long and narrow shape with relativelyhard and well degraded bristles that will catch and put the hair inplace.

It has been known to fabricate brushes of the aforementioned type withthe tufts of fine bristles usually bent in two and then mounted in arubber cap. The thicker and heavier monostrand or filamentsare theninserted into the finer bristles. Such types of brushes have been knownwherein both the finer bristles and the monostrand or filament projectthrough the rubber back and are secured thereto after which the rubberbacking or cap is affixed to a suitable baseor mounting. A brush of thistype is rather expensive to fabricate in comparison to a conventionaltype of brush. While a brush formed with the tufts of fine bristles anda strong monostrand or filament is readily susceptible of coming andcleaning during its use it assures one of a poor performance of settingdue to its general oval shape or configuration, such that a hair dresserwill use such a brush to comb and brush a person's hair but will use asecond or different brush for setting.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a hair brushhaving a plurality of tufts of fine bristles with a single thick strandor filament being associated with each tuft and wherein each tuft andits thick strand or filament are positioned in and secured in a blindhole provided in the base or brush mounting structure. The tuft of finebristles is usually bent in half and then inserted into the hole orrecess provided in the base member or portion of the brush. The singlethick strand or filament is of a length greater, than one-half of thelength of the tuft of fine bristles so that one end portion of the thickstrand or filament may be bent back a short distanceupon itself butstill leaving the major portion of its length such that it will projectbeyond the ends of the tuft of fine bristles so as to be capable ofproducing a combing effect. The bent tuft of fine bristles and the bentthick strand or filament are secured to the bottom of the hole or recessby a suitable fastener.

One of the objects of the present invention relates to a novel system ofmounting at a reasonable cost the bristles and thick strands in a hairbrush which can perform the functions of combing, cleaning and setting.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THEDRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an enlarged verticalsectional view of a tuft of fine bristles and a thick monostrand orfilament secured in a recess or hole of a brush base or support;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of a hair brush embodying thepresent invention;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a fragmentary portion of brush formingmachine showing the magazines for holding the various bristles;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a fragmentary portion of a modified brushfonning machine embodying the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the strand and bristle collecting elementsof the brush forming machine of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a modification of the brush forming machine shown in FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2,there is shown the base or body portion 10 of a hair brush having aplurality of spaced recesses or holes 12 defined for the reception ofthick tufts of fine bristles 14 together with a very strong monostrandor filament I6 of a rather large diameter. The inner end portion 18 ofthe monostrand or filament 16 is bent back upon itself for a shortdistance and said inner end portion 18 as well as the tuft of finebristles 14 are secured in thebottom of each recess or hole 12 by asuitable fastener 20. It is to be noted that the monostrand or filament16 is of a greater length than the fine bristles 14 so that the brushwill be capable of performing the combing operation or effect when usingsame.

In an effort to achieve automatic mounting of the bristles in a brush ofthe aforementioned type and under the same conditions as in a regularconventional brush and therefore, at practically identical cost, variousmechanical processes can be used which are adapted in standard brushmounting machines. To make the ideas clear, two possible processes,among others, will be described, without these two processes-beinglimiting. 1 v

It is possible to use a regularbrush mounting machine provided it isequipped with a double magazine to provide bristles or syntheticfilaments, namely, a magazine 22 for fine bristles and a magazine 24 forthick bristles (FIG. 3). A mobile piece or member 26 is employed to pickup the bristles or filaments in the magazines and bring them to theinsertion tool. The mobile 26 is provided with two notches, one 28 totake a thick filament in its magazine 24, the other 30 to take finefilaments or bristles in their magazine 22. In the general case whereone of the notches has to pass by a magazine where it is not supposed topick up bristles or filaments, this can be avoided by the addition onthe mobile piece of a cam member 32 judiciously placed, making itpossible to bypass the bristles or filaments which are not supposed tobe grasped when the notch passes by the corresponding magazine.

If the fine bristles are located in the magazine closer to the insertiontool, and the thicker filaments in the magazine farther away, the notchintended to pick up the thick filament will first pass by the magazinecontaining the fine bristles if the two notches are hollowed out on analternating are going from the magazines to the insertion tool by a backand forth movement. Naturally, the notch intended for the thick filamentshould not be filled with fine bristles in passing by the magazine offine bristles and this can easily be achieved by moving the finebristles aside at the time of passage of this notch, by using, forexample, the difference in length of the bristles or filaments betweenthe two magazines. Attachment of the double tuft thus constituted willbe assured in the holes of the brush mounting be regular fasteners byregular tools of brushmaking machines.

- The invention also has for its object a variant of this processwherein the mobile part comprises a single notch, the machinecomprising, on the one hand, a stationary part arranged so as partiallyto block the notch of the arc part when said notch comes opposite theoutlet of the thick strand magazine, so as to permit only one strand toenter into said notch, and on the other hand, a mobile part, attached tothe insertion tool so as to block the outlet of the fine bristlemagazine when the notch, in the forward travel of the mobile part,passes by said magazine before'being passed by the thick strandmagazine, and moves away to uncover the outlet of the fine bristlemagazine when the notch, having received a thick strand, passes back bysaid outlet in the return travel of the mobile part. Thus, the notch isprevented from filling up with fine bristles before having received thethick strand.

FIG. 6 represents hypothetically, and simply by way of example, apossible embodiment of the machine according to said variant. In thisFigure, the mobile arc part 36 is provided with a notch 38 forcollecting fine bristles from the magazine 40 and thick strands from themagazine 42. The insertion tool is designated by 44. According to theinvention, the machine comprises, on the one hand, a stationary part 46arranged as '48 is lowered and consequently, blocks fine bristlemagazine 40, thus preventing these bristles from going into notch 38when it passes by the outlet of magazine 40. On the other hand, when arepart 36 rises on its return travel, mobile part 48 moves away from themagazine 40 so that when notch 38, having previously received a thickstrand from magazine 42, again moves past the outlet of fine bristlemagazine 40, these latter bristles may pass or feed into said notch 38.

It is also possible to use a machine provided with two magazines whichare located to the right and left of the insertion tool so that such amachine is provided with two arcs or paths of movement, one from theright and the other from the left for delivering bristles to theinsertion tool. A magazine 22 will contain the fine bristles, and thistime a single notch in the mobile arc part or member 26, FIG. 5, will beable to deliver the necessary amount to the insertion tool, the magazinebeing adjusted in height to obtain a bending in two of the bristles.

Simultaneously, a notch in the other mobile arc member 26 designed topick up only one thick strand from the magazine 24 will deliver thisthick strand to the insertion tool, the thick strand being picked upvery much off center by an adjustment of the height of the correspondingmagazine 24.

The insertion tool will thus receive, from both sides, two types ofstrands or filaments in a suitable amount and regulated to a suitableheight, and the tuft thus constituted by the meeting of the two feedswill be pushed into the mounting hole in the usual way, its attachmentalways being assured by a fastener, FIG. 1.

As already indicated, this mounting process for hair brushes applies toall types of mountings, both from the viewpoint of the shape of themounting and its'composition, wood, cut plastic, molded plastic, etc.

In regard to the strands, it is possible to use, for example, andwithout restrictive character, for the monostrand either a syntheticfiber such as nylon, for example, or very thick strands of very hardboar, but this latter only for very expensive brushes. The strands canbe made up of a finer synthetic fiber, for example, a nylon with a veryfine diameter or by various quality hog bristles, particularly,relatively cheap bristles.

Although the foregoing description is necessarily of a detailedcharacter in order that the invention may be completely set forth, it isto be understood that the specific terminology is not intended to berestrictive or confining and that various rearrangements of parts andmodifications of detail may be resorted to without departing from thescope or spirit of the invention as herein claimed.

What is claimed:

l. A hair brush having a solid rigid base member with a plurality ofspaced recesses formed therein and extending partially therethrough, aplurality of mixed tufts of bristles, each tuft including a plurality offine bristles and a single thick strand, said fine bristles being bentback upon themselves with the portion containing said bend beingpositioned upon the bottom of said recess in said base member, saidsingle thick strand having an end portion bent back upon itself with thebent portion being positioned upon the bottom of said recess,

and a fastener member engaging the bent portion of said thick strand andthe bent portion of said fine bristles for securing same to the bottomof the recess in said base member.

2. A hair brush as set forth in claim 1 wherein, said single strand islonger than the fine bristles so as to project beyond the ends of saidbristles.

3. A hair brush as set forth in claim 1 wherein the ends of said finebristles are of substantially the same length.

1. A hair brush having a solid rigid base member with a plurality ofspaced recesses formed therein and extending partially therethrough, aplurality of mixed tufts of bristles, each tuft including a plurality offine bristles and a single thick strand, said fine bristles being bentback upon themselves with the portion containing said bend beingpositioned upon the bottom of said recess in said base member, saidsingle thick strand having an end portion bent back upon itself with thebent portion being positioned upon the bottom of said recess, and afastener member engaging the bent portion of said thick strand and thebent portion of said fine bristles for securing same to the bottom ofthe recess in said base member.
 2. A hair brush as set forth in claim 1wherein, said single strand is longer than the fine bristles so as toproject beyond the ends of said bristles.
 3. A hair brush as set forthin claim 1 wherein the ends of said fine bristles are of substantiallythe same length.